When an SMS message is received on a mobile phone, the mobile phone displays
the message text and the telephone number of the phone that sent the message.
This telephone number is called the sender address or sender ID. In some setups the SMS
technology makes it possible for the sender of the message to freely specify
the sender address. When freely specified, the sender address can be a phone
number or an alphanumeric string. In this guide we give you information about
when it is possible and how it is possible to specify the sender address for
outgoing messages.
Sender ID restrictions
Valid characters:
A-Z a-z 0-9;
Length of a numeric Sender ID:
Maximum length of 16 digits
Length an alpha-numeric Sender ID:
Maximum length of 11 characters.
When can I specify a sender address?
The sender address for an SMS message can only be manipulated if you use an
IP SMS connection, such as
CIMD2,
SMPP or
UCP to send your SMS messages.
Some HTTP SMS service provider
connections also make this possible. If you attach a
GSM phone
or GSM modem to your computer, it is not possible to modify the sender
address for outgoing messages.
This is not a limitation of the Ozeki SMS software.
It is a limitation of the GSM technology. There is no way to specify the
sender address for messages that are sent from a mobile phone or modem, because
these messages are MO (Mobile Originated) SMS messages. For MO messages
the sender address is assigned to the message by the SMSC not the mobile
phone.
The format of the sender address
If you are using IP SMS connection, you can specify the sender address. The
sender address can be a local phone number, a short code, an international
phone number or an alphanumeric string. If an alphanumeric string is used,
the maximum length for the sender address is 11 characters, and the characters
must be member of the GSM 7 bit
alphabet.
If international phone number is used the phone number should start with a plus
sign and country code. e.g.: +36201234567.
Specifying the sender address
In Ozeki NG SMS gateway you can specify the sender address on the configuration
form of the service provider connection. For example if you use SMPP, you can
specify the sender telephone number in the "Telephone number" field (Figure 1).
You can put a telephone number into this field, or a text, such as "ozeki".
Figure 1 - Specify the sender address
Please note that some SMS service providers will not let you specify a sender
address freely. They will give you a number or word you should use for all your
messages.
If you look on the form you will see a checkbox next to the "Telephone number"
field that is called "overridable". If this checkbox is NOT checked, all you
your messages will be sent with the sender address specified in the "Telephone
number" field. If the checkbox is not checked it means, that the user who sent
the message cannot override the telephone number specified in the configuration
form.
Overriding the default sender address
If you configure many users and applications on your Ozeki NG SMS gateway
software, you might want to assign a different sender address for all of
them. For example if a message is sent from a database, you might want to
have sender address "dbuser" and if it is sent by the admin user, you might
want to use sender address "+36201234657".
To reach this goal, please check the "overridable" checkbox in the service
provider connection's configuration form. This will allow you to specify a sender
address elsewhere. The next step is to open the configuration form of the user,
for example open the configuration form of "admin", and open the "Advanced" tab.
In the advanced tab you can put the sender address you assign to the user into
the "Sender address:" field (Figure 2.).
Figure 2 - Custom sender address for a standard user.
You can specify the sender address the same way for all applications. For
example the configuration form of the database application also contains an
"Advanced" tab with a "Sender address:" field (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Custom sender address for an application.
You might have noticed that there is an "overridable" checkbox next to the
"Sender address:" field. If this checkbox is checked you can specify the sender
address on a per message basis. For example if you use a database, you can
specify a different sender address in the ozekimessageout table for every
message you send out.
